Laying Angels to Sleep
by MissAnnThropic
Summary: After Mulder returns from the dead Skinner and Scully rally to get him back on the X Files while Doggett gets a glimpse of the true nature of Mulder and Scully’s relationship.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Laying Angels to Sleep  
Author: MissAnnThropic  
Spoilers: DeadAlive  
Summary: After Mulder returns from the dead Skinner and Scully rally to get him back on the X Files while Doggett gets a glimpse of the true nature of Mulder and Scully's relationship.  
Disclaimer: I own nasing! Really, I don't. All you see here (that you recognize, anyway) is the creation of someone else. I take no credit.

* * *

"Sir, I appreciate what you're wanting to do here, but did you happen to note the time?"

John Doggett shifted on his feet, phone held to his ear in irritation. Almost as an afterthought to his last question, he brought up his left forearm and looked at his watch. 9:48... it was late. Too late to be starting up a project of the magnitude of which the assistant director, linked to the other end of the phone line with Doggett, was suggesting.

Skinner's voice hesitated, in what Doggett had come to learn was his boss's equivalent of a restrained sigh, then his voice came back a little kinder as he pressed further, "I am aware of the hour, Agent Doggett. I would hope that you could appreciate the uniqueness of the situation and the extenuating actions it warrants."

Doggett was quiet a while, not sure how to answer. First, he had to figure out how he felt about the whole thing, and that was still a blur to him.

Agent Mulder had been released from the hospital four days ago. Doggett had not seen him nor Agent Scully during that time but for fleeting glances in the FBI hallways. They were always together, just like old times, and also like old times they both had this look on their faces like they were on a mission.

Not even a whole week back and Fox Mulder had gotten something to rile him up. At first, Doggett had no clue what they were up to, and he supposed it was none of his business. He didn't realize how much it WAS his business until someone from management approached him.

He'd been at the lunch cart when an acquaintance in personnel management came up to him and jeered lightly, "Thinking of bailing on the X Files, huh, John?"

Agent Doggett had looked at the man a little quizzically a moment, then replied, "I'd no intention to... what made you ask?"

The old colleague had proceeded to tell him that it was all the buzz in the underground staff at personnel. That Agent Scully had had Skinner ask, on her behalf, the specific repercussions should Agent Doggett formally requested a transfer from the department with the backing of both the assistant director to the project and the head of the department concerned.

Then Doggett put together what Scully and Mulder had been doing, and that Assistant Director Walter Skinner was involved too. They were trying their damnedest to get him off the X Files... in order to get Mulder back in.

It was such a blatant and outright ditch attempt that he'd not known what to think enough even to get mad. Should he really have expected anything else? Of course Fox Mulder would want his position back, naturally Skinner would be lobbying for him, and why wouldn't Agent Scully be backing Mulder and fighting tooth and nail for his cause all the way?

Perhaps he was put off because he'd thought he and Scully had come to an understanding. He thought she respected his work, his efforts, but yet here she was moling around all the loopholes of the system trying to get him out. To remove him from the office space he'd shared with her for months.

It irked him to think that, nearly five months of hard work together and struggles to earn her trust and respect, and all it took was Mulder being back home a matter of days before she was ready to throw all that away, and him along with it. Almost literally, throwing the baby out with the bath water. She was intending a spring cleaning of the X Files now that Mulder was back, and Doggett was meant to be tossed out along with the rest of the clutter. Not even blaming this on the nesting instinct was enough to stop him from being unnerved.

But again, should he have expected anything different? Would it have been presumptuousness to let himself think he'd been anything more than a seat-warmer for the well known Spooky Mulder?

Maybe what angered him the most was that he'd allowed this reaction to catch him off guard. He should have known better, and he was angry with himself for not seeing this coming long ago.

Doggett finally brought himself back to the present, looking around the office.

The X Files basement office was silent. Scully and Mulder had been in and out fleetingly, but Scully strangely refused to look at him. Maybe, just maybe, she found it in herself to feel at least a little bad for what she was trying to do to him. Agent Mulder, though... well, he looked at Doggett for what he was, a possible threat, an intruder... yet to be seen, but maybe a most formidable enemy.

The thought of Fox Mulder caused Doggett to look down at the desktop before him. He was standing before Scully's... Mulder's desk, since the phone was situated there. The table top was clean but for a few scattered papers, and taunting him in the darkness of the rest of the unlit office was the revived name plate.

Doggett hadn't seen who got it out and put it back, he just remembered coming in one morning and there it was, as though it had been there the entire time. 'FOX MULDER'. The engraved letters glared at Doggett the moment he came into the office. It managed to vanquish his months of occupancy in the office and reduce him to feeling like an unwelcomed guest.

Doggett closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Going home and getting back to this problem in the morning wasn't going to make it go away any more easily. He might as well face it now, no use running from it.

"All right, sir... what did you want me to do?"

Skinner let himself give an audible sigh ('damnit', Doggett thought, 'is EVERYONE so anxious to be rid of me?'), then said, "There are some files in the filing cabinets that I'd like you to cull out. We need copies of the field reports and agent supplementaries, and then I'll need you to bring them to my office as soon as you're done with that."

Doggett, without a word, got the information about the files that Skinner requested, then set about finding them in the filing cabinets.

It was 10:20 before he'd gathered up all the obscure files he'd been asked to retrieve, then it was the grudged task of taking them up to the first floor to find a copy machine. 'Didn't the X Files office used to BE for copy machines?' Doggett thought, 'This is ridiculous.'

* * *

Agent John Doggett, photocopied files in hand, departed from the elevator after returning the originals to their rightful place. The halls of the building were utterly empty, even those of the floor where Skinner's office was.

That did not remain so long, for almost the moment Doggett stepped out of the elevator and toward the assistant director's office, Skinner's secretary emerged into the halls from that direction.

Kimberly caught John's presence out of the corner of her eye and looked up, "Agent Doggett," a tired and strained greeting. Doggett didn't like the tone. Did she know something he didn't? She sure acted like she'd just gotten some bad news, but then again, it was late... maybe she was just tired. Maybe she was feeling guilty for wanting him out of the X Files just as much... it sure seemed like everyone felt that way.

She stepped past him without another word, moving into the elevator and leaving Doggett alone in the hall again.

With a heavy sigh, Doggett turned back to the direction of the office he'd been headed in. The files in his hands were thick... there had been a lot of files Skinner had wanted pulled and photocopied. Doggett, in an effort to find anything positive in this situation, compromised with being glad that Skinner had not wanted each file copied in their entireties. With what he HAD asked for, it turned out to be half the work.

Doing all that culling and copying, however, he couldn't help but see most of what it was that Skinner had wanted from him. Most of the files were heavily concerning Fox Mulder and some of the strangest cases he and Scully had come across in their investigations into the X Files together. From what he could gather initially was that they were attempting to make a case that Fox Mulder was an excellent agent and well suited to his position on the X Files.

What bothered Doggett was the fact that some of the later files he'd been asked to photocopy were cases from the time when Mulder was gone. They were files wherein HE'D been present and instrumental in the investigations. They were agent performance reports and addendums concerning HIM. Agent Scully was in there too, of course, but the only changing variable was between his name and Mulder's being on the partner line.

He didn't want to think about the implications were it true, but he couldn't but help feel he was being set up to be compared to Fox Mulder. He was being compared to a man who'd many times before been reprimanded for almost insane behavior. A part of Doggett, despite his desire to keep an open mind until he knew for sure what Skinner wanted with the files, couldn't help but feel a little insulted at the very idea. And challenged. They were desperate to prove Agent Mulder a better FBI agent than he.

What was there to like about any of it?

* * *

Doggett paused at Skinner's door, having bypassed the now empty reception room without hesitation, and considered knocking.

Then he decided against it. This was unofficial work, and he'd been asked to come. He was expected. And, to tell the truth, he was not really in the mood to be gracious and courteous.

Opening the assistant director's door, he habitually rapped faintly on the door with his knuckles even as he stepped into the threshold. Old habits of manner died hard, he supposed.

Doggett's eyes scanned the room the moment he stepped in.

Skinner was behind his desk, although he was not sitting. He was standing at his desk, hands on the table top as he leaned over it, as though he'd just been inclined forward to whisper something to the people on the other side of the desk. His jacket was draped over the back of his chair and his tie was undone, hanging around his neck. Doggett had never seen his boss let down his controlled and authoritative appearance.

Across the table from Skinner were the two agents conspiring with the assistant director. Doggett stood a moment giving them more attention than he'd allotted his glance at Skinner.

Agent Mulder stood before Skinner's desk, body straight as though he were set on edge by Doggett's arrival. Not too hard to imagine. He was wearing a dark blue suit, a strangely patterned tie loose around his neck, though not untied as Skinner's was.

Doggett met his eyes for the briefest of moments.

There was distrust there, but not outright hostility... not yet. He looked wary... suspicious. And he looked tired. Doggett was not convinced the agent was fully recovered from his ordeal. Hell, he was DEAD a matter of weeks ago, and here he was jumping right back into the fray... much too soon, it seemed. The defiance behind the weariness in Mulder's eyes, however, kept Doggett from saying anything concerning the agent's fitness for duty. His dark, tired eyes were still sharp. Doggett had to admit that they alone spoke of an intellect that few men possessed. The fire despite Mulder's exhaustion spoke of his tenacity. Doggett supposed that was plenty enough, especially for a strange (obviously informal) meeting such as this.

Doggett turned his brief attention away from Mulder to find the one agent he had THOUGHT he'd come to understand.

Agent Dana Scully was standing by Mulder's side. She looked so natural there, so comfortable and accustomed to her place there, despite the added burden of her swollen belly. So much so that it tempered Doggett's anger for a moment at the secret plot against him. Dana Scully was wearing drab colored maternity clothing. She'd finally taken to wearing flats opposed to high heels, so the top of her head barely came to Mulder's shoulder. She looked absolutely exhausted. Doggett frowned, concerned. He couldn't really help worrying about her... after all, for months she'd been his responsibility as his partner. He had to worry... another habit that he would have to break but which as of yet remained. Scully met his eyes, and Doggett was almost certain he saw apology in her gaze. 'At least she's sorry she's trying to toss me on my ass' he thought.

"Agent Doggett," Skinner's voice interrupted his observations. Even the assistant director's voice sounded weak and tired, though still forceful enough to get the results he demanded.

Doggett turned his attention to his boss (maybe soon to be former boss), "Sir."

Skinner glanced at the papers in Doggett's hand, "Are those the documents I asked for?"

Doggett nodded, moving forward and handing them to Skinner.

Skinner took them, waited a moment, and when Doggett didn't move an inch in retreat, he asked, "Is there something you want, Agent?"

Doggett nodded, glancing over at Scully again and being careful to avoid the unpredictable gaze of Fox Mulder, "Yes sir... I'd like you to be honest with me."

Scully's face fell a little, but every fall of her expression on managed to make her look more tired. Doggett felt a flare of anger at this, finally letting his eyes jerk up to level with Mulder's. This Mulder guy was supposed to be Scully's friend (assumedly more), why was he letting her just stand there nearly dead on her feet? Didn't he SEE that she was obviously pregnant? Didn't he KNOW she was exhausted?

Mulder's stare in return was clear. Somehow, the man seemed to know that the slightly angry look Doggett sent him was concerning his partner. The return message was clear, 'Back off... I have my eye on her, stay out of this... she's MY concern.'

Doggett turned back to Skinner to avoid an actual confrontation, "Assistant Director, I know what you're all trying to do."

Skinner looked at Doggett a moment, then at Scully.

Doggett sighed, "Sir... I know you and Agent Scully are trying your best to get me thrown out of the X Files..."

"We're trying to find you a way out, Agent Doggett," Scully's voice broke the tension.

Doggett looked over at Scully. It only then really occurred to him just how close she was standing to Mulder. It wasn't a closeness like she was leaning into him, and it wasn't really a concerned proximity to him. It was... it FELT more like their natural stance. All the time Doggett had known Scully she'd had a distinct sense of space. She'd never been above taking a subtle step away from John in the office if she felt he stood too close. That was how closely she stood by Mulder, and looking perfectly natural and comfortable doing it. The nearness she accepted with this other agent was a distance that, had it been Doggett, she would have taken a step away from.

Scully sighed, seeming to almost sag in the dim office. Doggett had taken for granted just how much light came in from the windows during the day.

Scully's posture wavered, but maybe only in his imagination. Just as much as he maybe imaged Mulder favoring toward her. In a second, the almost nonexistent dance of hidden body language was over, and Scully's words took precedence again, "This is nothing personal against you, Agent Doggett. You know I respect you as an agent..."

Doggett bit back the desire to ask, 'do you', because Scully had more to say, and he was very interested in hearing it.

"But there are more pressing concerns than who likes who here."

Doggett glanced back at Skinner, demanding, "Sir, I don't recall ever requesting reassignment."

Skinner frowned, "Take Agent Scully's word here, Doggett, and don't make this personal. A question of fact is presented here... who is better for the X Files."

Doggett nodded, then looked up at Mulder fleetingly. No doubt about it, he was getting more and more territorial by the moment and trying his hardest not to let on.

Doggett commented, eyes glancing down at Scully, "And I take it the consensus is that I am not?"

Scully looked at Skinner a moment. Doggett hurt to see her like this. She was trying to be her usual, strong self, but she looked so tired.

"Agent Doggett," Scully met Doggett's gaze, "you said it yourself weeks before. You ARE an excellent agent, and I credit you for that and don't doubt you could excel in any area you choose... but in this case, you're not the man for the job."

John looked up, meeting Mulder square in the eyes again. For the first time, Doggett addressed him, "Agent Mulder... I don't know you personally, and I've never worked with you, but I'm not trying to get in a fight. I don't WANT a pissing contest, but I do dislike being discounted so easily."

Mulder didn't speak for a while, giving Doggett moment to wonder if the man were really there (perhaps he'd been a statue the entire time), then he spoke, for the first real time Doggett hearing Fox Mulder's voice, "I'm not looking for a fight either, Agent Doggett. To tell you the truth, I'm not up to that... yet," Doggett bristled. The implication there was clear, that if Mulder had the strength for it, he'd be game, "but the X Files was my life. Those files mean more to me than they ever could to you, and my commitment to them could never be rivaled by whatever interest you might have in them."

Doggett caught the slight inflections in Mulder's words, " 'WAS' your life, Agent Mulder?"

Mulder's face seemed to pale a little, then he answered evenly, "Priorities change, but those files are still very high on the list."

Doggett looked down at Scully. He could imagine the exact same words coming out of her mouth.

Skinner sighed heavily, "Agent Doggett, please try to see this from our perspective. Fact remains that no one is more suited to handle these cases of the paranormal than Mulder is."

"What about Agent Scully?" Doggett asked, mostly just to see the reaction.

Skinner looked to Scully, letting her answer.

Scully sighed, seemingly made more tired by the question, "I can't do the job like Mulder can, I've told you that before."

Mulder spoke again, "This isn't about glorifying anyone. Most people think the X Files are a joke, anyway. What they don't know is that the importance of the work in those files is more significant than any of them could imagine. To take this lightly would be a fatal mistake."

Doggett's brows rose at the comment, then he looked at Skinner, "May I just ask, sir, how you plan to prove that I'm incapable of doing the same quality job that Agent Mulder could?"

Skinner studied Doggett a minute, then answered warily, "We were... we're going to compare methodology of investigation and degree of solve in various instances. If we can prove conclusively what the three of us already know... that Mulder's methods and high solve ratio are unique unto him, then there would be little disagreement with his proper placement on the X Files."

Doggett looked back at the two agents, quiet in thought, then asked, "Assistant Director Skinner... may I ask you something, off the record?"

Skinner paused, then nodded.

Doggett asked sternly, "Do you really feel I am so ill-suited to the task?"

Skinner was silent a moment, looking at the files in his hands, then answered, "In honesty, Agent Doggett... yes, I KNOW for a fact you are. You are a good agent, and I trust Scully's judgment of your character, but none of those attributes will be of any great service in the kind of work the X Files entails. You've only scratched the surface, Agent Doggett, there is much more in the X Files, and timing is critical. Perhaps if you had time, as Agent Scully had, to understand everything in that basement office's records, maybe you'd do all right. But, truth be told, there ISN'T time... action must be timely and precise. Everything depends on it."

Doggett frowned, "Is this about that whole alien invasion crap? Sir... that's just nonsense..."

Scully's voice broke in, more forceful, "And your refusal to believe would render you incapable of taking the threat seriously. If you don't believe, and you're the only one able to stop it, all is lost. I'm a scientist, Agent Doggett, but I've also been on the X Files for eight years. I know your uncertainties and your fears... but I've seen enough to know that it's true. I believe."

Agent Doggett studied Scully a moment, noting the defiance with which she tried to look alert and awake.

Doggett looked back at Skinner, saying lightly, "Going through all those files to compare records and means of investigation are going to take a while, sir. If I'm not mistaken, the issue of Agent Mulder's reinstatement and assignment will be in two days."

Skinner nodded wearily, "That's right."

"Then if I may, sir, I'd like to help."

Everyone looked at Doggett, a little stunned.

Doggett looked over at Scully, "If you expect me to leave my assignment on the X Files quietly should you prove this to OPR, I'll have to know it's true. If I'm here to sort this mess out, I'll see it for myself, and if I agree with you... I'll willingly request reassignment and concession to Agent Mulder the position on the X Files."

Doggett looked back at Skinner to avoid Scully's suddenly grateful and warm look, "Besides, it'll go faster with another set of hands."


	2. Chapter 2

Doggett sighed, beginning to regret he'd offered to help. It was nearly midnight, and his vision was staring to blur as he read report and report. They were all things he'd read before. He'd read nearly all of the files in the X Files when he first got assigned to it. Everything he was reading now was just repeat of what he'd already read, but having the flesh and blood Mulder in the same room with him made him look at the evidence in a new light.

And he hated to admit it, but he was beginning to think they were right.

Not about the alien hocus pocus, of course, but the more he studied the reports the more he found himself thinking, 'I wouldn't have come up with that... I couldn't have made that kind of connection... that wouldn't have even occurred to me.'

Maybe everyone's first impression of this situation was right... he was not the man for the job.

Doggett, at the thought, looked up. He was sitting on the floor, Indian style, before a spread of papers. Skinner was on the dingy couch in the back of the office, the papers and notes spread out in front of him on the small coffee table. Scully and Mulder, together, were standing over Skinner's desk, which had been cleared just enough to be covered with the papers.

Doggett had been checking on the progress of the others intermittently, just as anxious as them at this point to go home and get some sleep. Every time he looked at Mulder and Scully, however, he couldn't help but think that they wanted to go to sleep even more than him. Mulder looked about ready to drop, and Scully was practically dead on her feet, eyes heavier and heavier every time he looked up at her.

Hanging around in the background, he'd gotten a little glimpse here and there at the partnership between Mulder and Scully. First he noticed that they didn't lay much out in the open. They weren't walking around with their hearts on their sleeves, but maybe that was merely because he was there. They were discrete, quiet, but always close. And even when they weren't, when they were across the room from each other, he could swear it was as if there was some kind of connection between them that locked them together.

In fact, they acted as though the thought of being apart distressed them. But they had been apart for months with one thought dead... he couldn't fault them for feeling a little clingy to one another. What got to Doggett, however, was the way they stood. Mulder would come up behind one of Scully's shoulders, literally hovering right over her, sometimes arms brushing or chest centimeters from her shoulder. If Doggett had done that, it would have warranted a warning look. Scully, on the contrary, reciprocated. She was sometimes standing with only an inch between them, and looking completely comfortable when she did so. It was the only really overt show of closeness to one another that they allowed. That and their really strange, almost spooky, habit of communicating nearly whole conversations without speaking a word to one another. Sometimes it really was as if they shared one mind.

Indeed, as if Mulder had never left... like nothing had changed. There were, however, sporadic times when Scully, coming up behind Mulder to stand by his side as she probably had done so often before he was gone, that she and he both forgot about her expanded stomach. When her rounded belly happened to brush against him Mulder would noticeably jolt in tempered shock... it was faint and it lasted only a moment, but it happened. Once, Doggett could have SWORN he heard Scully chuckle at Mulder's surprised reaction to her pregnant body.

If he wasn't so tightly coiled over the whole situation, he might have laughed too. He remembered how he'd taken almost the entire nine months to get used to his wife's stomach when she'd been housing an entire new person in her womb. In that light, Doggett had moments where he felt empathy for Mulder. At least there was something the two had in common.

Doggett also began to feel better about Agent Mulder personally when, after about ten minutes in the office with all three of them, Doggett discovered that Mulder had not been oblivious to Scully's exhaustion. As it turned out, it seemed that was a point of debate between the two when he'd come in and interrupted. Numerous times, Mulder would softly ask Scully, "Do you want to go lie down?" "Please, Scully, take it easy", "I've got this, go home". It wasn't his fault that nothing Mulder said worked. Scully gently refused to leave the work unfinished. It certainly was not, as Doggett had at first thought, due to Mulder's lack of trying.

This time Doggett found Mulder and Scully at Skinner's desk, just as they'd been moments ago. Frequently Scully would take the offer by Skinner and the insistence of Mulder that she sit down, rest for a moment, in the chair behind Skinner's desk. She always wanted back up, though, as if she felt she were being useless sitting idly. Skinner's chair, though, was a reclining one, and trying to get her bulk out of its clutches was hard to manage on her own, try though she might. Doggett had thought about offering her help, but he'd learned his lessons in the time he'd known her. Don't touch, don't help, she can do it herself and will take your head off for assuming otherwise.

But she did not shun Mulder's offer.

The first few times were a little tense and awkward, but it got to where Mulder seemed to just know how long Scully could stand sitting still, and he'd be stepping around behind the desk and offering her an arm to almost literally crawl up until she got her feet under her exactly when she looked about ready to ask for it.

What was probably most surprising, though, was the little thing afterward that Doggett assumed they thought no one noticed, for it only happened once... or maybe it didn't at all. It happened so quickly and secretly that he couldn't be sure he actually saw what he thought he did. After using Mulder's arm to get herself up that one time in question, she would sigh a thanks (as she did every time he helped her up), then dropped her hands... but one stopped halfway... to take Mulder's hand in hers, or so Doggett thought she had.

And if it had happened in fact, it was cooperative, for Mulder showed no reaction of being taken off guard, maybe he even squeezed her hand back.

And their faces betrayed nothing. They were obviously very good at playing this game, for even after it had seemingly happened, Doggett could not be sure he'd seen them touch so intimately or not.

Eventually, he had to assumed it didn't happen, for Dana Scully did not strike him in any way as a person to show affection in public, no matter how slight. To have held his hand, for even a second, would have been out of character completely.

Doggett had to respect Mulder just for the things Scully let him do for her. She accepted his help, even seemed not to feel condescended by it... he must have something special with her indeed, he mused as his eyes sought them once more.

This time, they were both on their feet.

Mulder was leaning over the desk much as Skinner had been when Doggett first came in. His hands were on the table top, supporting the weight of his upper body as he tried not to sag in exhaustion or resignation. He looked like he was losing the battle, too. His bloodshot eyes were growing heavier by the moment.

Scully, standing by his left side, was even farther gone... though not by a whole lot.

Her arms were crossed in front of her, her head bent forward faintly and eyes closed just barely. She was nearly asleep on her feet.

Then she leaned to her right slowly.

She sagged just barely, her head drooping.

She came up softly flush against Mulder's body, leaning faintly into him at first.

Mulder looked over at her when he felt her come up against him, his face overcome with concern at her state.

Scully let her head drop down, resting on Mulder's left shoulder blade gently. Eyes still closed, she leaned more of her weight into him, face nestled in near sleep comfortably on his shoulder... and she stayed that way.

Mulder's left arm rose quickly, coming out in front of her, happening to place his hand almost atop her rounded belly but hovering inches away from it. He held position there a moment, poised should she begin to fall. When she didn't, he relaxed somewhat, but was reluctant to withdraw his arm from a good position of rescue.

In an act that nearly made Doggett snap awake in surprise, Mulder softly dropped his hand down, letting it rest faintly but in contact nonetheless with Scully's stomach.

Doggett was stunned beyond words. In many ways, Scully was not like most typical pregnant women, and one way was that she didn't let people touch her stomach. Doggett knew better just from knowing her than to ask (not that he really wanted to, even if she'd let him, he'd still fear getting his head bitten off), but female office staff brave enough to ask were given a rather cold look and a tersely polite 'I wish you wouldn't.' Doggett kept expecting, any moment, for Scully to wake up and metaphorically OR literally slap Mulder for laying his hand on her stomach.

Mulder seemed unworried about it, though, and not wholly uncomfortable with it as he turned his eyes reluctantly back to the papers without much of a second thought.

And that's how they stood for a good minute. Scully leaning against Mulder, using him as a pillar as well as a pillow, and Mulder allowing it without concern, one hand covering the bulge of her pregnancy almost absently as he looked at the papers on the desk.

Mulder's tired stance had grown stronger, somehow he had managed to muster strength to support the extra weight his partner was putting on him... and he said not a word in complaint.

All was quiet for a while, Doggett just about to return his wandering tired eyes back to his papers in front of him, when Mulder jolted.

Without warning, Mulder's hand (the one against Scully's abdomen) jerked quickly, his entire body rippling in a faint but shocked jump and a short "whoa" escaped his lips.

Scully, who had been on the edge of dozing but not sleeping, opened her eyes at the subtle movement and sound, lifting her head off Mulder's shoulder and asking with a hint of concern, "Mulder, what is it?"

Mulder swallowed, a little uncomfortable, his hand no longer touching Scully's stomach (it was once again hovering over it in uncertainty), and he said shyly, "Um... your... your stomach moved."

After a moment to register what he said, she smiled. Doggett could not believe it... she actually smiled. It wasn't one of those toothy, bust a gut laughing grins, but a warm, soft smile. It was a smile that, apparently, only Mulder had the honor of getting. Regardless of how tired she was, at that moment her face lit up, and a glint of amusement and good nature jumped into her eyes. 'God,' Doggett thought, 'I didn't know she could look so... normal.'

Scully looked down at her own stomach, as if she would see it actually bounce around, then commented softly to Mulder, "Yeah... if I'm still too long, well, I think he gets bored," and she shot Mulder a purposeful, almost pinning look, though still in good humor.

Mulder was still looking at the clothed mound, as if it were about to burst open like the scene from Alien, then asked, "He?"

Scully, Doggett could SWEAR, almost blushed, "I use it in the generic sense... I don't know the sex." Returning her eyes to her own stomach, Scully brought up one of her hands and rested it against her body lightly, her hand quickly finding the spot that had made Mulder jump.

Mulder, hand still a distance away from touching her again, watched. He looked both enthralled, curious, and freaked out all at the same time.

Then, without asking permission, he moved his hand forward again, back to Scully's stomach.

For the second time, Doggett tensed for a screaming rage of hormones to turn Scully into an absolute bear at the intrusion of her personal space and the actual act of physical contact.

He should have known by now that the old rules didn't follow with Fox Mulder.

Scully smiled again, more faintly this time but just as gently, then reached over and took his large hand in her smaller one. Sliding it over her girth, she held it flat against her belly, covering his hand with her own. Then she turned her eyes up to his face, the dancing light still behind them, and watched.

Mulder was still, then without warning his body twitched again, which warranted him an actual grin from Scully, too bad he was too engrossed with something between fear and amazement to see it.

Mulder's hand, still trapped to Scully's body by her own hand, settled further against her mass.

Mulder's eyes flashed something, then he glanced up at Scully, "Geez, Scully, how can you stand that?"

Scully chuckled lightly, the exhaustion still lacing her every action, then she returned, "I'm used to it... I've had someone waking me up at all hours of the night because he was bored LONG before I was pregnant."

Doggett wasn't sure what the reference was to, but Mulder apparently did. He, for the first time, smiled.

Mulder stood, pulling his hand away from Scully's body and nearly towering over her. She probably really missed the addition to height of her high heels.

Mulder looked at her seriously then, "Scully, please... get some rest."

Scully frowned, "Mulder, we don't have a lot of time; we have to get this done, and I..." she trailed off.

Doggett did not know where the sentence had been going, but as he should have learned to suspect by now, Mulder knew. At least he seemed to, and Scully seemed to know that he did. Not another word was said, but meaningful looks passed between them.

Mulder nodded, thought a moment in silence, then offered gently, "The couch in Kimberly's office... I promise, just an hour... please?"

Scully seemed about ready to balk, which Doggett knew well from her, but after a moment of built up resistance, she sighed and with her air went her resolve.

She sagged, eyes dropping. She, for the first time, let show how tired she was.

After a moment, she looked up and met Mulder's eye, "All right, but could you..."

Again, the unfinished sentence was complete to Mulder. Fox Mulder nodded, stepping aside to let Scully pass. As she stepped past him, Mulder's hand drifted up to the small of her back, almost guiding her as he accompanied her to the door of Skinner's office.

When they reached the door, bypassing Doggett on the floor with nary a glance, Mulder stopped to say, "Sir, Agent Scully's going to lie down for a while."

Skinner nodded wearily, "I wanted to myself for the last hour, but I'd be damned if I'd take a nap before the pregnant one did."

Scully smirked sardonically, "Ha ha... well, why don't we all take a break? I think we could all use it. John?"

Doggett blinked, taken off guard. He couldn't remember Scully ever calling him by his first name. Ever.

When he regathered his voice, he nodded and spoke, "I think that's a good idea, I could really use a stretch."

Mulder nodded, looking down at Scully, then mused, "How about... an hour?"

Everyone mumbled agreement.

Mulder, somehow (though not a sound was heard or light prod was seen) signaled Scully on, leading her out into the secretary's office. Doggett followed just as Scully was sitting down on the lounge couch as John intended to walk the halls for a while to return blood flow to his muscles and maybe stop at the vending machine.

* * *

John Doggett was gone from Skinner's office, and even the immediate vicinity of it, for forty-five minutes. He was glad to be away from Skinner, Mulder, and Scully, even if it was for only an hour or so. Within the span of a few moments, it had occurred to him just how ostracized he was from this group.

When he'd been on the X Files with Scully, she and Skinner had seemed to be in on something that Doggett wasn't allowed to participate in... he was cut out of the loop, and they had seemed pretty close.

But seeing Mulder thrown in the group... he couldn't imagine just how much of an outsider he was. It was almost as if Fox Mulder was the adhesive that knitted the trio of conspirators together. Like a nest of cobras, as soon as Mulder was amongst them again they had rallied and retreated into an even tighter circle of defense... made it even harder for Doggett to get in.

And if Doggett had thought before that Skinner and Scully had a closer camaraderie, he was hammered with the realization of just how close Mulder and Scully were.

After being in a quiet room, watching them, something became clear to him. That Skinner, though a friend in arms with them, was not one of them. Mulder and Scully were in a sphere by themselves, and the force field around that bond was impenetrable.

It was clear that they were so much more than partners... they were best friends, siblings, teachers, warriors... and maybe more than even all that.

The exchange between them right before they called the break... he didn't know what to think of it, and for the first time he let himself seriously wonder about the parentage of Scully's baby. Because it had started to come together in Doggett's mind just all the things that Scully let Mulder get away with that no other human being could do to her. He could help her, stand near her, approach unannounced, offer help... and he could touch her. Not just her arm or her hand, but she let him touch her abdomen. More than that, she had guided his hand to the spot on her body being kicked at by the fetus inside.

And, as far as Doggett had ever seen (aside from supportive but reserved hugs from Skinner), no one else had ever been given so many rights to her.

No one else was allowed to be around Scully the way Fox Mulder was, and if he was the only person she allowed to be so personal with her, then wouldn't it stand to reason that it was for a reason other than perhaps they were just friends?

And there were other, little things, that caused him to wonder. He could see, without really knowing Mulder personally, that the agent had definite strong protective instincts about his partner. Doggett had only looked at her back in the office, and there was a definite warning glare in Mulder's eyes. Why would he feel so inclined to protect Scully if she weren't more to him than just a close coworker? The defensive behavior was not even warranted to that degree among simple friends.

If the conditions were any other, then Doggett would not think twice about assuming that that behavior denoted that they were a couple, and that the unborn child belonged equally to both of them.

Under normal circumstances, he would have no doubt that Fox Mulder was the father. That he was Scully's equal of a husband.

But these were not normal circumstances... indeed, nothing in the X Files ever was, and that alone led him to doubt. To question... and to wonder. He hated an unsolved puzzle.

* * *

Doggett, weary already from the thought of more paperwork, rounded the corner that would take him to Skinner's office. Silent in pensive musing, he moved into the secretary's lounge, intending to move through without a second thought to Skinner's office door.

A bulk out of the corner of his eye stopped him.

Doggett looked over at the dimly lit far wall of Kimberly's office space, where the beige couch sat situated against the wall.

Doggett found there Agents Mulder and Scully.

They were both asleep.

Mulder was sitting in a semi-upright position, crammed up into the left corner of the couch and leaning back in a reclined posture. His left arm followed along the arm of couch, his hand dropping off and hanging in midair. His other, right arm was thrown over the back of the couch, resting on its perch for the full length of his arm. His tie had been loosened further, looping faintly around his neck and falling to one side of his body. His lanky legs were sprawled out in front of the couch, one knee happening to touch the low-centered table that was a few feet away.

Scully was there with him. Actually, she was ON him.

Dana Scully was curled up almost completely on the couch, no part of her touching the floor. She was extended more horizontally along the couch's length. She was coiled up beside her partner, her feet bare and tucked up behind her on the couch cushions. She was almost as upright as Mulder, but merely because he was her pillow. Scully's upper body was draped against Mulder's right side. Her head rested on the hollow of his shoulder/chest, her torso leaning back into his as a body pillow, her right arm crossing around him (it had probably started out around his chest, but as she fell asleep it had dropped down to rest across his waist). Her large stomach seemed almost perched upon Mulder's leg.

And from what Doggett could see, both had been sleeping for some time.

Scully's face, buried from view by the combination of being snuggled against Mulder and having her hair fall over her face, was emitting the slow, rhythmic sighs of sleep.

Mulder's head was turned, inclined to rest against his raised right arm as it draped over the back of the couch, but in doing so it had nearly touched his facial features to Scully's hair at the top of her head. His eyes were shut; he also breathing deeply.

And something about the way they curled up together, even if this had occurred accidentally, looked fitting. Like it was the most natural and correct thing for them to do.

Doggett wasn't sure how long he stood there, looking at them and trying to decide how he should react, then he snapped out of it and turned to Skinner's door. It was, after all, not really any of his business. They were technically off hours, and what Mulder and Scully did in their free time was their own business. But still... he had to think...

* * *

Skinner looked up as Doggett came in, "Agent..."

Before Skinner could say more in that reverberating voice of his, Doggett moved fast through the door, brought a hand up to his face and pressed a finger to his pursed lips. The only thing he omitted was the 'shhh' sound.

Skinner grew silent, curious.

Doggett closed the door behind him carefully, then answered in a soft voice, "They... Scully's finally sleeping."

Skinner nodded after a moment, looking at Doggett strangely, then saying, "Is Mulder available?"

Doggett was sure, from something in Skinner's tone, that he knew full well he was not.

"Not quite, sir. He's with Agent Scully."

Skinner nodded, then looked at the mess of papers, "I know they both need their rest, but it's going to take us all night if it's just the two of us... do you think you could get Mulder?"

Doggett nodded agreement, thankful Skinner was going to leave Scully to get some sleep.

As quietly as he could, he stepped back out of the office and moved toward the sleeping agents.

Doggett stood near Mulder's head, whispering harshly, "Agent Mulder..."

Mulder stirred, frowned, then opened his eyes. He seemed to jump mentally a little at seeing Doggett, but once he woke up a moment he was calm again.

Doggett whispered as faintly as he could so as not to alert Scully, "A.D. Skinner wants you and me back in there to finish up."

Mulder nodded groggily, then turned his eyes down to the woman curled against him. He regarded her a moment, maybe even lovingly if that were true, then seemed to freeze.

Doggett could literally see the question, 'how to slip out of this without waking her.'

Doggett moved to the front of the couch, standing before them, and carefully reached around Scully.

Mulder's eyes jerked up to Doggett, but John made it clear through professionalism that he was only trying to help.

After a moment, Mulder moved slowly, both men finding places to put their hands in order to jostle Scully the least as Mulder wriggled his way out from underneath.

It was slow going, and literally took both of them to do it, but Mulder eventually was free, one hand under Scully's neck and the other holding up her shoulder as he stood beside Doggett in front of the couch. Doggett, with one free hand that was not necessary to prop the woman up, reached over for the far arm cushion and handed it to Mulder.

With a glance that Doggett would almost qualify as grateful, Mulder took the pillow and situated it under Scully's head as Doggett took over supporting Scully's shoulder for him as he used that hand to arrange the pillow.

When it was situated and Mulder reached again for Scully's shoulder, Doggett relented, then stepped back.

Mulder lowered Scully's body gently to the couch cushions, resting her head softly on the pillow. The entire time, she was out like a light, not stirring once. Of course, Doggett and Mulder had been meticulously careful not to rouse her.

Doggett watched for a second to see that she would not wake, Mulder kneeling in front of her and doing the same (but from a much closer distance), then muttered, "I'll see you inside, Agent Mulder."

Mulder nodded and grumbled under his breath.

Doggett moved quietly toward Skinner's office door.

What made him stop at it and look back, he wasn't sure, but he did. Doggett, after turning the doorknob, did not open the door up but instead looked back toward the couch.

Mulder apparently thought Doggett had already stepped inside the office. He clearly didn't think he was watching, for if he had, Doggett was sure he would not have done what John saw Mulder do.

Kneeling in front of the couch by Scully's head, Mulder watched her sleep for a moment. Then, without a sound, he brought his hand up and touched her face, brushing aside errant strands of red hair from her cheek, tucking them gingerly behind her ear.

Then, without apprehension or fuss, Mulder bent forward, placing a soft kiss on Scully's temple.

Doggett quickly and without a sound moved into the office, passing through the threshold just as Mulder was standing up. Doggett knew he was not meant to have seen that, but in a way, regardless of its questionable merit, he was glad he did.

At least one question plaguing him had finally been answered. He could feel better about Scully in Mulder's care when he was off the X Files, because in that one innocent move, he'd been made certain now.

Mulder loved her.

The question of Scully's affection had been answered to Doggett long ago through actions, but now at last he could be sure it was not without reciprocation.

He felt better about leaving, because he knew they would take equal care of each other... equal protection.

Because they loved each other.

END


End file.
